Finally repave the street -- then dig it right back up again

A portion of Chew Street in Allentown finally got a new layer of asphalt paving last summer, smoothing a bumpy ride that had plagued motorists for several years. If memory serves, the work went basically from Seventh Street to 17th, from downtown all the way out to the hospital, or close to it.

I wondered, when I noticed yellow spay-paint markings on the nice black surface later last summer -- probably in August -- whether officials were planning to rip into portions of the street once again. My first thought: UGI might be replacing gas lines, spurred by its accelerated schedule after the horrific explosion of February 2011, in which five people died, including an infant.

City Public Works Director Rich Young said he wasn't sure offhand when I asked him about it at an unrelated public meeting. But he noted that yellow is the designated color for road markings related to gas-line work.

Sure enough, today's story by my colleague Tim Darragh on the extra-stepped-up gas-line replacement schedule notes that lines will be repaired or replaced in the the 1600 and 1700 blocks of Chew this year. That's 1,500 feet worth of brand-new asphalt road being excavated in a year's time, and since the markings I noticed are in the area of 10th Street, there could be more. They could be digging all the new paving up within a year of its installation, for all we know.

They can't get all these deteriorating gas lines repaired soon enough, as far as I'm concerned, so on one side of the road, it's great news that the lines beneath Chew Street will be addressed.

But you have to wonder whether that was known, or could have been known, before the road was repaved. We've found in the past that poor communication and coordination (or even the utter lack of those practices) often result in costly and wasteful projects.

Current Comments

When are you going to fix that trench on Turner St.? People are swerving way around so they don't bottom out and damage their cars.

This is pitiful.

Posted By: Filthy_Rat | Feb 22, 2013 6:08:46 PM

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about this blog

Morning Call Reporter and Columnist Dan Hartzell is The Road Warrior, defending the drivers of the Lehigh Valley and the roads on which they drive. E-mail questions about transportation in the Lehigh Valley and beyond to hartzell@mcall.com.